Dead Malls Season 5 Episode 28 - College Square Mall

[@NorthCdogg22]

Little glitch there at the beginning saying Season 4 instead of 5, whoops! It’s the little things like that that’ll slip through the cracks sometimes lol.

[@melbrown6019]

I miss the 70’s-90’s when malls were everywhere and thriving. This mall is really pretty. It’s sad how dead it is. Great video!

[@NorthCdogg22]

I agree, thank you for watching!

[@Mike1064ab]

It’s sad how now they don’t even try to revive them they just turn the malls into affordable housing and outdoor shopping without the same shelter and community the indoor malls had. It’s all about the bottom line. They didn’t even realize all those smart devices they sold there led to their demise. People had those they figured why did they need to shop at the mall anymore when they could shop online.

[@willkettle3959]

@@Mike1064abonline shopping is a symptom, not a cause of the decline in shopping malls

[@traditionalgirl5585]

@@Mike1064ab It is not what the "new world" will be about... what is coming is not good... slave state..

[@Snookifan4life]

EVERY time i see this mall it keeps getting more and more empty, such a shame. I also can’t wait for season 6!

[@CosmicLighthouse]

Old cedar falls resident here! I miss this mall. This was the SPOT! It’s so sad seeing it disappear

[@amydaisy933]

That's probably how they're making any money these days... through the fake hurricane machine 😂😂😂 . Ha! Thank you SO MUCH for your videos, I enjoyed them very much. You put alot of hard work into them and it shows. 😊 ❤ Can't wait to see season 6!

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thanks for watching I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@sunsetrecords2548]

Honestly thay center water feature has to be the most beautiful thing i have seen in a mall to this very day

[@penelopejoann]

I’ve been watching a lot of dead mall series and this mall is my favorite. I wish I could see it in all its regalia, with full neon, but alas. It’s what dead malls should be for me, open shelter spaces turned into beautiful parks for reflection, gathering, and refuge. Seems like all dead malls could have some public benefit after their rise and fall on the gauntlet of capitalistic exploit.

[@yoursleepparalysisdemon8216]

Missing working at lark so so bad, I left just before we closed. We were like a family. We all had our ups and downs, but we tried our hardest. Also, security dude might just be outside watering the fake flowers again. Seriously someone tell him they're fake.

[@hushPUPPEE]

Also you MUST give an incredibly huge shout out for VILLA ITALIAN as well as GENO'S PIZZA (located at Crossroads Mall in Waterloo)... these two staples of each mall have singlehandedly held on longer than any other business in either malls history an still fight to continue! Each owned an ran singlehandedly by two brothers who work literally every day from open to close! Those guys are the real rock stars of these two malls and they seriously have the BEST pizza in Blackhawk county!!! If you live in the area please support these guys!!!

[@carlbishop6281]

I used to live in Iowa, in fact im home for a funeral. Can confirm that Villa Italian is still open and will be vising them Monday evening for some pizza!

[@JohnnyinMN]

Check out the old ‘Thunderbird Mall’ in Virginia, MN. Smaller than this one, but same type of atmosphere. I think it’s called, ‘Uptown Mall’ now.

[@wesleypeters4112]

On the other side of the old Walco facade is the inventory backroom and Wine and Spirits for Hy-Vee. I have been to the backroom plenty of times when I worked there just a couple of months ago. On the other side of the brick is cinder block. The old entrance is still visible from inside the Hy-Vee backroom. I believe some of the old flooring from when it was Walco is still in the backroom as well.

[@chrissasandlin8344]

The fountain & the skylights were amazing. I'm surprised there isn't a nearby seating area. Very cool intro, totally took me back to tired tiny me being dragged to the mall by my parents 🤣

[@LostDepartments]

It;s amazing how well-maintained this mall still is despite being so dead, it's so cozy and looks really good. I think that not giving the movie theater and Hy-Vee mall entrances started the decline of this mall, as that caused that wing to start to bleed dry long not long after. Eventually, it spread to the rest of the mall as there just wasn't enough foot traffic to sustain it. By like 2010 when I first visited, it wasn't looking good. It's also crazy they don't have any sign mentioning Von Maur from the front. As the last traditional department store in the entire area, they should at least acknowledge it's there from University Avenue.

[@NorthCdogg22]

That’s true! I didn’t even think about how Von-Maur is essentially cut off from everything else going on on University

[@benb8407]

I like when dead malls are well-maintain as well for it being dead than seeing it going down hill with leaks and other issues.

[@taramisu9978]

These videos are very well done. I have been watching dead mall content on and off for several years now and others that used to post it either stopped or post rarely. I think what sets you apart is the old pictures and commercials that are inserted now and then. It's very interesting to see the then and now, keep up the excellent work!

[@doggobowwow2253]

My grandma lived on walnut street for years. Every summer we would visit and go to college square mall to the Montgomery wards 😊

[@rosierose2717]

Seeing that pretty working fountain surrounded by shuttered stores is surreal. And of course, there’s a still-operational Bath and Body Works! Great video!

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thanks Rosie!

[@benb8407]

Amazed that they kept the fountain and it was working thought that they would get rid of it and cover it up. You know it's a dead mall when you see the old look of Bath & Body Works.

[@Oceanblue_Art_]

The editing and music choices were great, especially during the intro! Also, hello from Discord

[@hushPUPPEE]

The storefront with the red you asked about was originally a musicland then name changed to sam goody but without any remodel. The white brick wall along the hallway where the Walmart entrance used to be, has always been there, just repainted several times, there used to be a huge staircase that went down to Walmart along with a large handicap ramp that extended into the hall to the right. And I remember that hall being a darker brown color lined with lighted movie advertisements for the theater, then towards the front mall entrance there was a Baskin-Robbins an small area with coin operated kiddy rides an such. ....honestly I can't believe I remember all that but somehow I do!!

[@PokePoss]

I quite enjoyed both this video and the one on Crossroads Mall, two places I have fond memories of. It's crazy seeing just how frozen in time the mall is. With the anchors occupied it's a surprise that inline spaces near them don't see a revival too. I could see the place having a new start if local stores utilized the space but Namdar being the owner just tells me my fond memories are soon to be all that's left of College Square.

[@MitchKeegan]

I remember the brick wall being on there when it was a Walmart in the 80s

[@retAFcop98]

Another excellent upload!

[@johnburke1317]

Nice water fountain ⛲️

[@Parkjkookie1831]

This mall was my favorite growing up. Walmart was connected at the end their was a dollar tree and radio shack. American eagle was their. And the candy store. The movie theater use to be on the inside of the mall. Miss miss miss. One think that still exists is the waterfall where everyone through in a quarter and made a wish. I wish I had a DeLorean and go back to my childhood. I'm 39 now but I remember it like yesterday 😢 was also a Baskin Robin's as well and a Texas roadhouse

[@meloh1na]

I stumbled across this channel after binging through Retail Archaeology...then I subscribed and binged through everything here too while working lol. Really cool to have someone from this neck of the woods cover this kind of content. If I had to nitpick a little, the font color and styles you use for captions can sometimes be hard to read, but even that's been slowly improving with each episode. Keep up the good work dude, looking forward to what you've got next.

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy them, and I hope I can keep telling these stories! Thanks for the feedback, I’m always looking for ways to improve these videos. Hope you enjoy what’s to come!

[@bp6h]

I'm just now getting into the dead malls content/liminal spaces and your videos are some of the best on YT! ♥ I hope one day you can make it down to Texas. I'm sure we got some big ol' malls for you to see!

[@NorthCdogg22]

Texas is our first stop in Season 6, your gonna love it!

[@bp6h]

@@NorthCdogg22 can’t wait!! 😃

[@kitw76]

Your hometown mall looked nice in its day, always sad to see when something you remember so fondly not look the same. How my hometown mall is too. It wasn’t a big mall but it always had everything you wanted and have great memories of it! I really like the live plants and waterfall feature!

[@ShelterCats]

Love the music so much, and your rhyming and humor. Well done.

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thank you!

[@Olee1980]

This is the Mall I hung out at back in the '90s when I was in Junior High School and High School.

[@JoshYT1]

Great end to Season 5! I can't wait to see where the journey of Season 6 takes us all. I am so glad you noticed how Gm's malls in Iowa are essentially sisters to each other; Marshalltown and Muscatine with their white drywall JCPenney anchors in the center court, and North Grand sharing similar floor tiles / ceilings with Muscatine!

[@frankwafer6919]

Thanks for the trip back in time!💯👍!

[@NorthCdogg22]

Glad you enjoyed Frank!

[@EnishLord]

Moved to Cedar Falls recently. Never realized that there was actually a mall there, just thought it was a shopping center. Also, that explains why I get the feeling when I go into that Hy-Vee it feels like it wasn't built as a grocery store. Something about the entryway and the odd placement of the pharmacy drive though seemed a bit odd to me. Guess I know why now.

[@missybaker1608]

Oh my goodness College Square Mall had the most beautiful renovations up to now. Love the architecture going down center of mall. Plus beautiful rock fountain!!! Beautiful Trees and plants. Had great stores throughout its life until it became a dead mall. Waterloo IA has a beautiful mall with theaters still in operation? Beautiful like Maplewood in Minneapolis.

[@2010MegaScooter]

Keep up the content man, your camera work is amazing on showing what you see with these malls. 👌🏽

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thanks! Will do!

[@jirden]

My hometown is Okoboji, so my local mall growing up was the Southpark Mall. Went to college at UNI 2013-2017), so my local mall in college was this one. Went a few other places after college but I moved back to CF in 2021. I’m so sad to see the mall is effectively dead now. They even just closed the movie theater a couple weeks ago. 😢

[@rlhippen]

The entrance to the theater used to be inside the mall. Now a sign and wall is in its place and an outdoor entrance was added just for the movie theater. Also an arcade was just before the doors exiting the mall by the theaters. Was there in the 80's. Now it's the mall office.

[@beardown1995]

Had to stand in line past the Walmart entrance for some movie I can't remember

[@slackingpacking]

I love the music! Great video dude! I love the aesthetics of this mall.

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thanks SP!

[@ballistik_coffee_boy]

Just spectacular ! Wonderful mall and a wonderful tribute 🤗☕️🥳🤩

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thank you!

[@thejigisup4470]

Great season North, looking forward to S6. Really hoping you one day make it out to SE PA and do a video on my local dead mall - the Exton Square Mall.

[@coreycoyle9548]

I love the Fountain too!!! F+L, Corey

[@funecheeseofficial3576]

Man you should’ve ended it with the epic roast of fort steuben mall

[@seabee73]

Sad to see it so dead and empty. Thanks for another video.

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thanks for watching Seabee!

[@ZeeMann_Retail]

Dude, what is that music at the beginning of the video? It's so jazzy! Great video!

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thank you! It’s called Chapter 14 by Gregory David

[@dustinhesse3321]

This was one of the mall we used to see out shop at when we were kids. This in crossroads is sad that they are dying. It's just sad

[@NorthCdogg22]

It truly is.. especially now being a resident to the area it has been hard letting these malls go

[@scottDchicago]

Awesome episode!

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thanks Scott!

[@JackRusselMan]

I haven't been in the college square mall in probably 20 years now. I have been to cross roads mall a hand full of years ago.

[@victorhancock3109]

Another great video! Love your channel because we live in generally the same area, so lots of the malls are familiar to me, if not directly nostalgic. I recommend looking into Iowa City's Sycamore mall (though I don't believe its called that anymore), it's quite a small mall but has a very fascinating and tumultuous history, and is presently in a very unusual state. In general the Iowa City area has lots of interesting dead malls, what they lack in size they make up for in quantity. Eastdale may be an interesting one as well. Oldest mall in the city, and almost entirely abandoned at this point, only having a few nonretail tenants. I have a feeling demolition is in it's near future.

[@NorthCdogg22]

I'll definitely be checking it out soon! I wanna get down to Iowa City and see there several malls

[@HenryRoss-wu4lo]

❤@A must watched!👍🏼🤔😭💔🏦rupt.

[@mollyheffernen]

What a beautiful tribute! College Square used to have steps and a ramp going down to Walmart. So I am pretty sure they remodeled it after Walmart left. Does season 6 have any malls I might be familiar with? Applebee's shows they have a Cinnabon dessert. I know you might like that news.

[@NorthCdogg22]

It most likely does! You’ll enjoy Season 6 I’m sure! Thanks for watching Molly!

[@tyto131]

Love your videos!

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thank you so much!

[@butterboiii9810]

Can’t wait to watch this video while building a mall in Minecraft lol. I enjoyed the discord chat earlier.

[@R32R38]

Sort of a reversal of the usual situation. The anchors are occupied (Von Maur, Ashley, and the theaters), but almost all of the inline spaces are vacant.

[@NorthCdogg22]

It really is an interesting situation!

[@donniecudmore9080]

It's worth saving

[@Glopdemon]

I grew up going to the Marshalltown mall but always loved when we’d come up here, especially in the late 90s. Not least of which because The Core comics and games shop was only a few blocks away, but also College Square had a Software Etc, something Marshalltown never had, and their B. Dalton was bigger and better than Marshalltown’s Waldenbooks

[@lauriesmith5008]

It is sad that all these malls are closing. In Texas we have tons of thriving malls.

[@22locor]

A shame, because it's a very pretty for a small-town mall. I bet the community was at its strongest when friends and family would meet here.

[@CheapestBigSpender]

Right before the movie theater, on the right was the arcade. Soon as you walked in, Virtual Fighter on right with X-Men behind it and on the left was Mortal Kombat with Sunset Riders behind it. Don't know how many hundreds of dollars of quarters I spend there

[@randycharlesjohnson6248]

The mall that is located in Morristown, Tennessee is also called the College Square Mall.

[@ERA_Productions]

Great video!!!!

[@NorthCdogg22]

Thanks Andrew!

[@Battle_rifles]

It was a river flow with a bridge walk over the river that was the original water feature

[@andrewpayne6295]

What is the beautiful background music?

[@marissaulrich3092]

The fountain has been there as long as I can remember so at least 15 years. Used to be always be surrounded by kids and their mothers throwing coins into it. Von Maur and HuHot are the only things keeping College Square alive sadly.

[@beardown1995]

The empty woolco was used for a karate tournament before walmart moved into that space

[@jennteal5265]

The red store was a Sam Goody :)

[@warrendvale]

I was wondering if you could do my local mall, Golden triangle mall in Denton Texas. I understand it’s not easy, it would just be cool.

[@cslusarc]

I didn't notice any in-aisle kiosks.

[@Parkjkookie1831]

Personally this is the most sad mall. Grew up here my now husband did his first black Friday here when walmart was at the end of the mall that happened over 20 years ago. Been together since ages 13 and 15. Black Friday has changed as well. Amazon

[@jakesawesomevids7908]

Ok I was a little busy today but watching at 10:34 pm CST

[@donniecudmore9080]

Keep the mall open! But please show the stores that are trying to keep the mall opened. ITS WORT SAVING!!!!!!!!!!

[@DUCKY2018]

In my opinion them sealing off Hy-Vee from a mall entrance and the Movie theater (Now closed :/) was a massive fumble. I mean Yeah Walmart left and that kills but now look at Hy-Vee, Every time i pass by it's packed with people. That coulda easily been Mall traffic. I'm not sure how they coulda done it but they shoulda did everything in there power to convince Scheels to stay and operate from two locations.

[@dumerkoff]

What is the name of the music at the beginning of the video?

[@NorthCdogg22]

The song is called Chapter 14 by Gregory David

[@christopherweise438]

Take 2 on the College Square video. Imagine my disappointment when the first upload didn't pan out.

[@NorthCdogg22]

Shame on me!

[@christopherweise438]

@@NorthCdogg22 - You came through in the end....and that's what counts.

[@orlandowyatt3352]

The red was Sam goody

[@orlandowyatt3352]

College square and crossroads was my life every weekend

[@dennyskou6218]

What part of Iowa are you from?

[@charlestonpinballarcade]

$3 🎉🎉🎉

[@ryderollis5550]

Nice video also do you play roblox

[@Idelia412]

The mall is headed for the wrecking ball. You cannot turn a profit with just a few stores. Upkeep will cost the owner to much to keep open.

[@CB.5]

Wow you must be an economic genius!

[@armyboy1207]

Sad update, Marcus Theater recently closed in this mall, and now the only one is in Waterloo.

[@WhittyPics]

Your intro says Season 4? I guess you were tired when you edited this. All that stuff in the middle of the isle just looks too cluttered.

[@NorthCdogg22]

That’s a typo on my part whoops!

[@retailanddixeddfan503]

NICE BRO 👍

[@NorthCdogg22]

FR

[@ronhoover5516]

Somewhat dated maybe but...I like it.

[@jcabem]

At 3:49 does anyone recognize what store would use that red tile?

[@NorthCdogg22]

Sorry I didn’t get to see this sooner! The redish pinkish tile storefront you’re mentioning was most definitely a Vanity, almost every midwestern mall Vanity storefront looks like that. Hope that helps!

[@bertonspat129]

What’s the song in the intro

[@Alpha-p9x]

Mario kart 8

[@NicholasShade-eq1ts]

I love the music. I love the sunrise. I love this subject. Thanks for uploading. I'm about to have to stop the upload. Because I have to file my unemployment. 🗃️ Where I work, we get laid off for the winter. 🌨️ ❄️ Because I work near Lake Tenkiller, most of our business is had during the summer when people are out on the lake. I work at restaurant called Soda Steve's Restaurant. 🍔 🍟 I'm a dishwasher there. But this last summer, I got to cook a lot of food. 🔥 The restaurant I work is part of Fin and Feather Resort. 🐟 🪶 We have cabins that you can rent, as well. If you or your viewers are ever around, stop by. Ok, I'm going to pause this, for a second. ⏸️ 🐾 🐾 🐾 🐾 🥈 I have to file my unemployment. 🗄️ 📱